Foreign Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

CENTRAL ASIA
U.S. FORCES KILL 22 REBELS IN AFGHANISTAN
KABUL, Afghanistan – American troops and helicopter gunships killed 22 insurgents, including three Arab fighters, in southern Afghanistan, the military said yesterday, the latest bloodshed ahead of historic Afghan elections.
Meanwhile, the U.N. withdrew dozens of staff from the western city of Herat a day after mobs ransacked its offices. The mob violence came after President Karzai fired the city’s warlord governor. His replacement later ordered a 9 p.m. curfew. The 12-hour battle in the southern province of Zabul, a hotbed of resistance to Mr. Karzai’s American-backed government, began late Sunday, the military said.
Spokesman Major Scott Nelson said some 40 insurgents attacked coalition soldiers on a search operation. The troops called in two Apache helicopters, which opened fire on the fighters. The American forces seized a global positioning system, a video camera with tapes, four grenades, and two assault rifles, Major Nelson said. He declined to give the Arab fighters’ nationalities, or say what was on the tapes.
– Associated Press
MIDDLE EAST
SHARON RIVAL BACKS PULLOUT REFERENDUM
JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Sharon’s attempt to speed up a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was undercut yesterday by his main political rival, who called for a national referendum that could delay or even scuttle the pullout.
Mr. Sharon’s minority government could fall over a crucial budget vote in March, and he is trying to move up the evacuation of 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank from late next year to the beginning of 2005.The finance minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Sharon’s main rival in the ruling Likud Party, proposed yesterday to hold a national referendum on the Gaza pullback, saying it was the only way to heal rifts in an increasingly divided nation.
However, critics charged Mr. Netanyahu’s motive was to postpone the pullout past March, hoping that a new government would kill it. Preparing legislation for a referendum could take months, and Mr. Sharon’s aides said he opposes the idea – even though he would likely win wide public support for the withdrawal.
– Associated Press
PERSIAN GULF
SYRIA URGED TO ADHERE TO U.N. DEMAND
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Gulf Arab ministers urged Syria yesterday to respect a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding it withdraw its troops from Lebanon, a rare public intervention in the affairs of a fellow Arab nation.
Momentum for a Syrian withdrawal was building among Arab nations, with Jordan’s foreign minister saying his country also supported the U.N. resolution demanding foreign forces leave Lebanon. Ministers of the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries said all such international resolutions must be followed and nations should not be allowed to pick and choose. They were meeting in the port city of Jiddah.
“The Council supports internationally legitimate resolutions, and [that includes] the last decision issued by the Security Council, calling for the withdrawal of all forces from Lebanon,” said the Kuwaiti foreign minister, Sheik Mohammed Sabah Al Salem Al Sabah, head of the GCC’s Council of Ministers. Trying to play down the significance, Mr. Mohammed said that supporting application of all such resolutions is “an old position of the council.”
– Associated Press
EAST ASIA
NORTH KOREA: EXPLOSION A PLANNED DEMOLITION
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said yesterday that an explosion last week that raised a huge mushroom cloud was the planned demolition of a mountain for a hydroelectric project, and the reclusive government invited a British diplomat to visit the site to confirm the story. The North’s explanation came as a number of officials and experts from America and elsewhere said they did not believe the blast Thursday near the Chinese border – which raised a cloud more than 2 miles wide – was a nuclear test.
But a Bush administration official said America has indications that the North is trying to conduct a test. The explosion and concerns over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions set off a heated back-and-forth between the White House and Democratic rival John Kerry. North Korea denounced the speculation over a nuclear test as part of a “smear campaign” against it, aimed at diverting world attention away from new revelations about past South Korean nuclear activities. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an American official said it isn’t clear what happened. While the official said there isn’t any reason to believe it was a nuclear test, the official also couldn’t confirm the North Koreans explanation.
– Associated Press
WESTERN EUROPE
E.U. CALLS FOR U.N. TO INVESTIGATE SUDAN
BRUSSELS, Belgium – European Union foreign ministers called yesterday for the United Nations to “immediately investigate” whether atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region constitute genocide, highlighting growing impatience with the Sudanese government for failing to end the conflict.
E.U. foreign ministers urged U.N. Secretary-General Annan to “establish as soon as possible” a special inquiry. In a statement they also urged Sudan to stop the fighting and implement a cease-fire in Darfur or face U.N. sanctions, including a possible oil embargo. They said there was “no indication that the government of Sudan has taken real and verifiable steps to disarm and neutralize” the warring factions. The ministers added an investigation was necessary to confirm Washington’s claims that acts of genocide were being committed. They called for “an international commission of inquiry…to immediately investigate all violations of human rights and humanitarian law in Darfur, and to determine whether acts of genocide have occurred.”
The British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, refused to call the atrocities in Darfur genocide but said an investigation was urgently needed.
– Associated Press